Each evening another two volunteers also sort through the items that are left during the day.

Orange-based Bathurst Central Council St Vincent de Paul executive officer Bruce Buchanan said the mess typically left in McNamara Street wasn’t as bad this year as previous years.

“It has been a lot better there’s no two ways about it,” Mr Buchanan said.

“I think we are getting the message [out] to people.”

However, there are still some people not doing the right thing and Mr Buchanan said part of it is because it costs money to take items to the Ophir Road Resource Recovery Centre and more large items are left at night or in the morning so more volunteers are needed.

“One of the things that we really want to get across is, if it’s not something you give to a friend then it’s probably not something that we could use,” Mr Buchanan said.

“Really what we are after are those quality donations to give to those families who are struggling.

“Usually we do have some people who use it as a dumping ground.”

He said the worst situation volunteers faced was on Sunday when someone bent the bar that locks the bins in place and up-ended one of the bins leaving items strewn across the ground in the St Vincent de Paul driveway in McNamara Street. 

Mr Buchanan said volunteers could open a bag of donations and the items are washed and labelled but the next bag could contain grass clippings.

He said they’ve had from dirty nappies and soiled sheets through to quality Calvin Klein jeans.

“We just want to let people know that we aren’t a dump sport, that people donate their time to make sure what we sell in our shops or give out to welfare is of quality,” Mr Buchanan said.

Vinnies will return to normal operations from January 7 and will continue to used money raised in its stores to help the most vulnerable residents and with drought relief in the hardest hit areas of the Vinnies council area.

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